Source:
Gustaf II Adolfs frieri till Maria Eleonora, pages 24 to 29, by anonymous author, 1854; courtesy of Uppsala University Library (Uppsala universitetsbibliotek) via Litteraturbanken.se
The account:
Missnöjet med Sverige och dess regering kunde hon dock ingalunda öfvervinna, utan talte beständigt om att resa till sina utländska slägtingar. Rådsherrarne afstyrkte, de sågo icke gerna att lifgedingets inkomster utom riket förslösades; svårt var också att afgöra, hvart hon i sådant fall borde vända sig, då Danmark var en föga pålitlig granne, och hennes bror, kurfursten i Brandenburg, då för tiden Sveriges förklarade fiende. Hon stod dock fast vid sitt beslut och började derom hemliga underhandlingar med konungen i Danmark. Denne önskade vinna Maria Eleonora för ett giftermålsförslag mellan sin son, prins Fredrik, och unga drottning Christina, hvarföre han smickrade och understödde hennes infall. Regeringen fick väder om saken, hvarefter den ömsesidiga oviljan än mera stegrades. Rådet lade allehanda hinder i vägen för de resor, som drottningen i misstänkt afsigt ville företaga ned emot danska gränsen, och det säges till och med, att hennes bref blifvit i hemlighet öppnade. Maria Eleonora, som vanligtvis skyllde alla sina olyckor på Axel Oxenstjerna, gjorde ett försök att genom skänker vinna på sin sida Ebba Brahe och hennes man, samt dymedelst bilda ett motparti mot Oxenstjerna. Det misslyckades naturligtvis, likasom hennes öfriga företag, och hon beslöt på fullt allvar att rymma ur landet. Konungen i Danmark, som ville förekomma alla ytterligheter, afstyrkte detta ifrigt flere gånger, men fåfängt; och i öfverenskommelse med hans i Stockholm varande sändebud vidtogos alla till flykten nödiga anstalter. Utförandet bestämdes till Juli 1640. Drottningen plägade en gång i hvarje månad hålla tre dagars fasta, hvarunder hon ensam med kammarfrun lefde innesluten på sitt rum. Denna gången hade hon under någon förevändning skickat bort hofmarskalken, och förklarade sedan, att hon ämnade utsträcka fastan till sex dagar, och lät inbära mat i förhållande derefter, hvarpå slutligen dörren stängdes. Rummet vette åt trädgården, i hvilken var anbragt en betäckt löfgång, som räckte ett långt stycke från slottet. Under följande natten gick enkedrottningen ned i trädgården, smög genom löfgången till stranden och rodde sedan på en båt öfver den lilla midt framför liggande viken. Uti parken steg hon till häst och skyndade i sällskap med några förtrogna herrar nedåt skärgården. På vägen utgaf hon sig för en borgaredotter från Nyköping; en i sällskap varavde [sic] dansk målare skulle föreställa hennes fästman; föräldrarne, hette det, hade sökt hindra deras förbindelse; deraf den nu i hemlighet företagna flykten, deraf de tårar, som den lättrörda drottningen icke mäktade återhålla. Uti skären utanför Trosa steg hon ombord på en liten förhyrd skuta, hvilken förde henne till Gottland. Der väntade tvenne danska krigsskepp, från hvilka hon efter motvind och svår sjösjuka slutligen landsattes på Falster.
Emedlertid kom hofmarskalken tillbaka till Gripsholm och frågade efter enkedrottningen. »Gud vet«, sade hofpredikanten, »huru hon befinner sig! Då jag vid de förra fastorna höll morgon- och aftonbön utanför dörren, hörde jag alltid hennes röst beledsaga afsjungandet af psalmen. Men denna gången har jag icke kunnat förnimma ett enda ljud.« Hofmarskalkens fru hade dessutom anmärkt, att hon icke, som förut, hört ljudet af enkedrottningens steg. Man blef orolig och klappade på; men intet svar följde. Hofmarskalken lät straxt spränga dörren och fann rummet tomt.
Saken inberättades genast och väckte ovilja öfverallt, dock mest hos rådet, serdeles hos Axel Oxenstjerna. De la Gardie ville lemna den afvikna enkedrottningen hennes underhåll och tillika frihet att vistas hvar henne behagade. Men Oxenstjerna påstod, att hon genom den obetänksamma rymningen satt en fläck både på sig sjelf, sin dotters regering, hela Sveriges rike och sin salig herres minne; samt dessutom förverkat all rättighet till sitt lifgeding. Detta var tacksamheten för det, att rådet nyligen ökat hennes inkomster och betalt 20,000 riksdaler på hennes skulder. Men salig konungen hade icke utan skäl kallat henne sin husliga olycka. Hon kunde mången ärlig man, mer än skäligt var, bedröfva. Hela riket delade rådets missnöje. Vid riksdagen sökte väl presterskapet att gifva saken en mildare vändning; men de afvisades af Oxenstjerna. Ständernas beslut blef, att hon sjelf mistade sitt lifgeding och hennes namn sitt rum uti kyrkobönerna.
Uti Danmark fick Maria Eleonora icke så glada dagar, som hon väntat. Christian mottog henne visserligen gästfritt, men vågade icke genom för mycken artighet stöta sig med svenska regeringen. Hennes underliga lynne gaf äfven här anledning till missnöje och obehagliga uppträden. Dessutom blef hon för den sparsamme konungen en temligen dyr gäst, emedan hon ville lefva i Danmark på samma fot och med samma hofhållning som i Sverige. Christian var ganska glad, då hon år 1643 efter många fram- och återflyttningar lemnade hans rike.
Svenska regeringen lät nemligen vid denna tid öfvertala sig att årligen anslå 30,000 riksdaler till hennes underhåll. Dock bibehöll Oxenstjerna sin förra ovilja. Han svarade icke på flere hennes egenhändiga bref. Då det yttrades, att också rådet hade måhända någon del i den uppkomna missämjan, afbröt han talaren, sägande: »Om rådet har felat, så har det endast varit genom alltför stor eftergifvenhet.« Ju mer Oxenstjerna hade arbetat och uppoffrat sig för Gustaf Adolfs hus, dess mera led han af Maria Eleonoras uppförande. Att se den store Gustaf Adolfs drottning landsflyktig, fattig och föraktad stryka omkring i fremmande land, var en anblick, som sårade djupet af hans hjerta.
Det var den unge kurfursten af Brandenburg, som nu mottog sin faster. Till vistelseort anvisades henne Preussen. Här framlefde Maria Eleonora några år uti enslighet, slutligen ledsnad. Dertill kom, att hon icke sjelf fick förvalta sina inkomster, emedan kurfursten fruktade att i sådan händelse blifva såsom konungen i Danmark tvungen att på egen bekostnad föda henne och betala hennes obetänksamt gjorda skulder. Hon började derföre vantrifvas och besynnerligt nog längta till Sverige igen. I sådan afsigt öppnades underhandlingar med dottern, sedan denna som fullmyndig tillträdt regeringen. Christina lemnade genast sitt bifall och det så mycket heldre, som hon derigenom ville iakttaga tillfället att göra en förtret åt Oxenstjerna, till hvilken hon denna tiden stod i mindre godt förhållande. Maria Eleonora återvände till Sverige, der emottagen med all den högtidlighet, som egnade Gustaf Adolfs enka och en regerande drottnings moder. Redan vid Dalarön möttes hon af Christina, en half mil utanför tullen af hela Rådet, deribland också Axel Oxenstjerna, som vid detta kinkiga tillfälle uppförde sig med värdighet och vördnad. Maria Eleonora erhöll i stället för sitt lifgeding 40,000 riksdaler årligen och dessutom åtskilliga kungsgårdar.
English translation (my own):
However, she could not overcome her discontent with Sweden and its government, but constantly talked about travelling to her foreign relatives. The councilmen refused; they did not like the incomes of the dower estate being wasted outside the kingdom. It was also difficult to decide where she should turn in such a case, since Denmark was an unreliable neighbour, and her brother, the Elector of Brandenburg, was at that time a declared enemy of Sweden.
However, she stood firm in her decision and began secret negotiations with the King of Denmark. The latter wished to win Maria Eleonora over to a marriage proposal between his son, Prince Frederik, and the young Queen Kristina, for which he flattered and supported her idea. The government got wind of the matter, after which the mutual dislike increased even more.
The Council placed all sorts of obstacles in the way of the journeys which the Queen, with suspicious intent, wanted to undertake a journey down towards the Danish border, and it is even said that her letters were secretly opened.
Maria Eleonora, who usually blamed all her misfortunes on Axel Oxenstierna, made an attempt to win Ebba Brahe and her husband over to her side through gifts, and thereby form a counter-party to Oxenstierna. This, of course, failed, like her other enterprises; and she decided in all seriousness to run away from the country.
The King of Denmark, who wanted to prevent all extremes, strongly opposed this several times, but in vain; and, in agreement with his envoy in Stockholm, all necessary arrangements for the escape were made. The execution of this was set for July 1640.
Once every month the Queen was accustomed to observe a three-day fast, during which she lived alone with her chambermaid, shut up in her room. This time she had sent away the court marshal on some pretext, and then declared that she intended to extend the fast to six days and had food brought in in proportion to that, whereupon the door was finally closed. The room looked out on the garden, in which was placed a covered walkway, which extended a long distance from the castle.
During the following night the Dowager Queen went down into the garden, crept through the walkway to the shore, and then rowed a boat across the small bay in the middle of the front. In the park she mounted her horse and hurried down to the archipelago, in the company of some trusted gentlemen. On the way she pretended to be a burgher's daughter from Nyköping; a Danish painter who was with her was to play her fiancé; her parents, it was said, had tried to prevent their union, hence the now secretly undertaken flight, hence the tears that the easily moved Queen could not hold back. In the skerries outside Trosa she boarded a small hired ship, which took her to Gotland. There, two Danish warships awaited her, from which she was finally landed on Falster after a contrary wind and severe seasickness.
In the meantime, the court marshal returned to Gripsholm and asked after the Dowager Queen.
"God knows", said the court preacher, "where she is! When I held morning and evening prayers outside the door during the previous fasts, I always heard her voice accompanying the singing of the psalm. But this time I haven't been able to hear a single sound."
The court marshal's wife had also remarked that she did not, as before, hear the sound of the Dowager Queen's steps. They became anxious and knocked; but there was no answer. The court marshal immediately had the door broken open and found the room empty.
The matter was immediately reported and aroused displeasure everywhere, but mostly in the Council, especially in Axel Oxenstierna. De la Gardie wanted to leave the deviant Dowager Queen her maintenance and also the freedom to reside wherever she pleased. But Oxenstierna claimed that by her reckless escape she had put a stain on herself, her daughter's government, the whole kingdom of Sweden, and the memory of her blessed lord; and she had also forfeited all right to her dower estate. This was the gratitude for the fact that the Council had recently increased her income and paid 20,000 riksdalers on her debts. But the late King had not without reason called her his domestic unhappiness. She could grieve many an honest man more than was reasonable.
The whole kingdom shared the Council's displeasure. At the Riksdag the clergy did indeed try to give the matter a milder turn, but they were rejected by Oxenstierna. The resolution of the Estates was that she herself lost her dower estate, and her name its place in the church prayers.
In Denmark, Maria Eleonora did not have as happy days as she had expected. Christian received her hospitably, but did not dare to offend the Swedish government by being too polite. Her strange disposition also gave rise to discontent and unpleasant behaviour. In addition, she became a rather expensive guest for the thrifty King, because she wanted to live in Denmark on the same footing and with the same courtly manners as in Sweden. Christian was quite glad when, in 1643, after many moves back and forth, she left his kingdom.
The Swedish government was persuaded at this time to allocate 30,000 riksdalers annually for her maintenance. However, Oxenstierna maintained his former dislike. He did not answer any more of her handwritten letters. When it was stated that the Council also perhaps had some part in the disagreement that had arisen, he interrupted the speaker, saying: "If the Council has erred, it has only been through too great indulgence."
The more Oxenstierna had worked and sacrificed himself for the house of Gustav Adolf, the more he suffered from Maria Eleonora's conduct. To see the great Gustav Adolf's Queen exiled, poor and despised, wandering about in a foreign land, was a sight that wounded the depths of his heart.
It was the young Elector of Brandenburg who now received his aunt. Prussia was assigned to her as her place of residence. Here Maria Eleonora lived out a few years in solitude, finally bored. In addition, she was not allowed to manage her own income, because the Elector feared that in such an event he would be forced, like the King of Denmark, to support her at his own expense and pay her reckless debts. She therefore began to do badly and, strangely enough, to long for Sweden again.
Negotiations were opened with her daughter for this purpose, after she had assumed the government as an of-age member of the government. Kristina immediately gave her approval, and it was all the more fitting, as she thereby wished to seize the opportunity to do a favour to Oxenstierna, with whom she was at that time on less than good terms. Maria Eleonora returned to Sweden, where she was received with all the solemnity that befitted the widow of Gustav Adolf and the mother of a reigning queen. Already at Dalarö she was met by Kristina, half a mile outside the customs by the entire Council, including Axel Oxenstierna, who on this delicate occasion behaved with dignity and respect. Maria Eleonora received 40,000 riksdalers annually in place of her dower estate, and also several royal estates.
Above: Maria Eleonora.
Above: Kristina.
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